Had man in choke hold till he became unconscious

He was Jonathan Duddy, Parkmore, Craigavon, and he was told that there was an escalation of violence in his offending.

For making a threat to kill, possession of an offensive weapon, a knife, assaulting a male and making a threat to destroy a dog on August 9 this year he was sentenced to seven months in prison.

A two month sentence was imposed for disorderly behaviour on July 23.

He was given seven month terms for unlawful damage to a door, unlawful damage to a sofa and possession of an offensive weapon and two month sentences for four assaults on March 23 this year.

All the sentences are to run concurrently.

Four months of a suspended sentence he received last year were also put into operation, to run consecutively, making a total of 11 months in custody.

The court heard that on March 23 at 7.15am police received a report of a male having been assaulted.

When they arrived at the scene they saw the defendant standing with two other males. Duddy ran off and jumped over a hedge.

The injured party said everything had been fine up until 7am when the defendant held a knife up to the throat of a male and punched another man.

A female asked Duddy to leave the house but he refused and she phoned her father. Duddy then assaulted him and when the female tried to get him off he punched her in the face. There was damage cause to a sofa.

The female’s father said that he asked Duddy to leave on a number of occasions but a scuffle broke out and they both ended up on the floor. A third male injured party was punched on the right eye. Duddy also broke the top of a door that was locked.

The defendant was heard to shout from outside that he was going to burn the house down.

On July 23 police went to Trasna Way after a report of a group of males causing annoyance in the area.

They had left and while police were in Millennium Way they saw Duddy who extended his arms and the middle finger of both hands making a gesture towards officers.

He was asked to leave the area and said ‘what the f—k are you going to do’.

On August 9 police found a man lying unconscious on the ground and the defendant was seen running away.

A witness said Duddy had held the man in a headlock until he had passed out. She put the victim in the recovery position and could not get any response from him.

The man had told Duddy he was being disrespectful to the owner of the house and as he tried to defend himself he was put in a choke hold. The next thing he remembered was coming around in an ambulance.

A barrister representing the defendant said there had been no further incidents between the injured parties and Duddy.

District Judge, Mrs Bernie Kelly, said there had been a complete escalation of violence in Duddy’s offending and ruled that the offences were so serious there was only one penalty she could impose.

She was also told that the injured parties wanted restraining orders on the defendant. She granted the orders for a period of two years.